Inspired by what happened to Power Gems, I present the origin story of TUF: Power Gems told in D&D Campaign style:
Hordes of orcs and goblins ravished the lands of Alcavia. Queen Syngo wanted to be sure something survived of her kingdom. Her trusted handmaiden spirited away her only daughter, Syngo2, to the nearby kingdom of Malchior. Protected by a great wall she would be safe.
Syngo2 grew to be a great warrior. On her eighteen birthday, the handmaiden revealed her past. She had always wondered about her odd name. Syngo2 was short for Syngo the Second.
The horde spread to the border of Malchior. The people of Malchior feared not. Their wall would save them.
The wall keep the horde at bay, until the day the Goblin King thrust the legendary sword, Flamebringer, into the great wall. It melted it’s way deep into the stone. The wall burnt with the heat of a raging god and the smell of sulfur. For three days, the wall smoldered. On the forth day cracks formed. The earth quaked, as the wall collapsed, leaving Malchior defenseless.
Syngo2 joined the army. She wanted to prove herself and avenge her fallen homeland.
The King had other ideas. There were tales of Power Gems hidden in the Caves of Moa that could defeat entire armies. Syngo2 was to protect Morgana, the most powerful sorceress in the kingdom, as she journeyed to the caves.
The goblins heard of the Power Gems. They sent three hundred warg riders to chase down Morgana and her guards. At the helm of the war party, on the biggest warg, was not a goblin, but a man. After causing strife in the kingdom, he had been exiled from Malchior. A number had been carved on his cheek for every lie he told the king.
The Numbered One had brought Flamebringer to the Goblin King to bring down the walls of Malchior. Once he got the Power Gems for himself, his revenge would be complete. He laid in wait with his warg riders outside the Caves of Moa and sent in goblins spies to watch them from the shadows. If The Numbered One let Morgana find the Power Gems for him, he could take them from Morgana before she figured out how to use them.
Morgana and her guards searched the Caves of Moa for 46 long days. With their iron rations gone and their stomaches growling, most of the guards wanted to give up. Some of them deserted and disappeared. Once she found the Power Gems, Morgana would need protection while she learned their secrets. Morgana grew worried and questioned the loyalty of her remaining guards. She asked each one, “How far would you go to protect me?”
The guards all pledged to guard Morgana, until the end of the mission. Syngo2 went further. She pledged to fight to the death to protect Morgana.
The grueling search came to an end, when Syngo2 found the Power Gems in a large cavern. The goblin spies chose that moment to sound an alarm and attack.
Morgana fended off the goblins with flame and lightening. The might of her spells collapsed the cavern, trapping Syngo2 and the Power Gems with a dozen goblin attackers.
The goblin spies surrounded Syngo2 like a swarm of insects. Each time she took a goblin down, another landed extra attacks. Mortally wounded, Syngo2 hid the Power Gems before she died.
Unable to retrieve the Power Gems, Morgana blasted her way out of the caves.
The Numbered One kept his warg riders at a distance. He hoped Morgana would yet become useful. He sent more spies to follow her.
Morgana wandered the land in search of lore about the Power Gems. She felt a dark foreboding presence, an evil second shadow that never left her side.
She met a mysterious stranger along the road. Morgana feared he might be the source of the darkness.
He had crossed Purgatory and the Chasm of the Abyss, from the land of Abaddon.
The stranger’s words put her at ease, until he admitted he was from The Unholy Family. The darkness was his. She was sure of it. Morgana considered how to dispatch this deadly creature. Perhaps such a formidable being would have the answers she sought.
Morgana described the aura and every detail she remembered about the Power Gems.
The stranger gave a knowing smile. He promised arcane secrets and the answers she sought. His price was to pledge allegiance to The Unholy Family and take their mark (TUF).
With the kingdom of Malchior at stake, she made the dark pact with a blood oath. Once made, she could feel the darkness seeping into her.
The stranger revealed his secrets. These were no ordinary gems. They contained the souls of a wraith army. The stranger gave Morgana the incantation to unleash the Power Gems, with a warning, the spell would consume her soul and the soul of a slain warrior that was pure of heart. Morgana knew it was a price she must pay, or the kingdom would fall. She accepted the dark bargain.
The stranger opened a portal to the cavern. Morgana unleashed the might of the Power Gems. The spell summoned two gigantic bone dragons that consumed the souls of Morgana and Syngo2. They rendered their flesh down to the bone. Syngo2 rose in skeletal form. Morgana and Syngo2 were united in undeath. They mounted the bone dragons and flew off to defeat goblin hoards, with a wraith army at their back.
To this day, Morgana and Syngo2, with Power Gems for eyes, ride phantasmal bone dragons. They call their warriors Power Gems, after the source of their strength.
We fight beyond death. Mighty warrior, will you take up swords with us?